The Defiant Wife (The Three Mrs #2) - Jess Michaels Page 0,83
I was free. Not from the pain, Phillipa, but from the burden of it. That is what loving each other does. We don’t end the pain, but we make the pain worthwhile. All of it would be worthwhile if I could start my day with you at my side. If I could end my night with you there. If I could cry with you and laugh with you and even argue with you. That is living. Without you it would just be…existing.”
She stared at him. He was right, of course. These past few days, since the last time they’d been together, she had only been existing. Going through the motions while she longed for him. There hadn’t been less pain or suffering or judgment when she left the house. Just less joy and happiness and love because he wasn’t there with her.
“Rhys,” she whispered, terrified because the door he had just opened was hope. The most dangerous and beautiful creature that had ever existed in this world or any other.
He took the hand he had been stroking and drew her closer, close enough that her body brushed his, and it was like coming home. He was home and he was offering her that forever. “I can’t predict the future,” he said. “So I can’t make promises that our marriage might not make us further pariahs. Or that we might not lose something we can’t predict. But we won’t lose each other. We won’t lose the family we’ve created, you and me and Kenley.”
“And I suppose it follows that losing that family is guaranteed if we walk away,” she said.
He nodded slowly. “Take my heart, Phillipa. And my name. And my problems. Give me all of yours. We might not solve them together, but we’re going to laugh more and love more and survive better if we are united than if we are separated.”
She caught her breath. “How can I deny you? You make it all sound…perfectly imperfect. The fact is that I love you. So deeply and profoundly. When I accepted that you were lost to me, it was as if someone cut off a part of me, something I needed to function. And the moment you walked into the nursery, I was whole again.”
She cupped his cheeks and smoothed her thumbs across them. He was warm and whole and hers. He was hers. He smiled because they both knew it. She beamed because the fight was over.
“I love you.”
He bent his head and brushed his lips to hers. “Then we cannot do anything but live happily ever after.”
Epilogue
One Month Later
Autumn leaves swirled on the grassy lawn of Rhys’s London garden, and he smiled down from the terrace as he watched Kenley stagger rather drunkenly from Phillipa to Celeste and then to Abigail. He was giggling uproariously as the ladies behaved as though he were the first child to do such a thing.
“They call that walking?” Gilmore said as he and Owen approached, and the duke handed Rhys a drink.
“It is walking,” Rhys said with a playful glare. “Do not disparage the fact that my son is the most intelligent and amazing child ever to grace this world or I shall meet you at dawn.”
Gilmore snorted. “We wouldn’t want that.” He raised a glass. “To the bride and groom.”
“To Pippa and Rhys,” Owen said. They clinked glasses and Rhys sipped the amber whisky.
Gilmore asked, “I realize she’s been gone a while, but I’m of an untrusting nature, so I will ask again. Do you think you’ll have any more trouble with Rosie Stanton?”
“No,” Rhys said. “Owen escorted her to the ship himself two days after the unpleasantness at Pippa’s old home. She will likely arrive in Lower Canada soon, weather permitting. She has with her an excellent reference from the Earl of Leighton, which will probably carry more weight there than it does here anymore. She promises to send her address once she is settled.”
“Lady Leighton intends to keep up her end of the bargain and share information about the child, then?” Gilmore asked, his brows lifting.
“Yes. She would not break such a vow. Nor should she,” Rhys said.
Gilmore, pragmatic as he was, didn’t look as convinced of that fact as Owen did, or as Rhys felt, but he said nothing and the men went back to watching the ladies.
“From a distance, you know, she is almost bearable,” Gilmore said.
Rhys glanced at him from the corner of his eye. “Who?”
“Abigail,” Gilmore grunted. “Though now that all is resolved with the situation with Montgomery, I suppose I shall rarely see her anymore.”
Owen exchanged a brief glance with Rhys. “That ought to make you very happy.”
Gilmore kept his gaze on Abigail for a moment. “Yes. It ought to.” He cleared his throat. “I think I shall step inside. Bit of a chill in that wind. I assume the party will join soon.”
“I’ll join you now,” Owen said. “And it looks like the ladies are packing up to come inside, as well.”
“I’ll wait for Phillipa,” Rhys said. “It looks like she’s coming up to the terrace while Abigail and Celeste take Kenley in through the lower door.”
The others stepped away and that left Rhys, watching as his wife…his wife…came up the stairs to the terrace. She was smiling at him. It felt like neither of them had stopped smiling in the fortnight since they wed by special license in his parlor before their friends, one very well-paid and highly judgmental clergyman, and their son.
In the time since, there had been blind pieces in the gossip rags, hisses in the street and one very public speech made about them. And yet, as she glided across the terrace to him, none of that mattered. He had never been happier than he was as she reached him, lifting up on her tiptoes to kiss him deeply.
When they parted, she tilted her head. “Is everything well? You have the strangest expression.”
“I was just thinking,” he said as he took her arm, “that I am the luckiest man in the whole of England. And that I can’t wait until all this riffraff go home so I can show you why.”
She giggled as they entered the house, filled with friends and hope and love warm enough to keep out the chill in the wind and in Society.
And all was right with his world.
Also by Jess Michaels
The Three Mrs
The Unexpected Wife
The Defiant Wife
The Duke’s Wife
The Duke’s By-Blows
The Love of a Libertine
The Heart of a Hellion
The Matter of a Marquess
The Redemption of a Rogue
The 1797 Club
The Daring Duke
Her Favorite Duke
The Broken Duke
The Silent Duke
The Duke of Nothing
The Undercover Duke
The Duke of Hearts
The Duke Who Lied
The Duke of Desire
The Last Duke
The Scandal Sheet
The Return of Lady Jane
Stealing the Duke
Lady No Says Yes
My Fair Viscount
Guarding the Countess
The House of Pleasure
Seasons
An Affair in Winter
A Spring Deception
One Summer of Surrender
Adored in Autumn
The Wicked Woodleys
Forbidden
Deceived
Tempted
Ruined
Seduced
Fascinated
The Notorious Flynns
The Other Duke
The Scoundrel’s Lover
The Widow Wager
No Gentleman for Georgina
A Marquis for Mary
To see a complete listing of Jess Michaels’ titles, please visit:
http://www.authorjessmichaels.com/books
About the Author
USA Today Bestselling author Jess Michaels likes geeky stuff, Vanilla Coke Zero, anything coconut, cheese, fluffy cats, smooth cats, any cats, many dogs and people who care about the welfare of their fellow humans. She is lucky enough to be married to her favorite person in the world and lives in the heart of Dallas, TX where she's trying to eat all the amazing food in the city.
When she’s not obsessively checking her steps on Fitbit or trying out new flavors of Greek yogurt, she writes historical romances with smoking hot alpha males and sassy ladies who do anything but wait to get what they want. She has written for numerous publishers and is now fully indie and loving every moment of it (well, almost every moment).
Jess loves to hear from fans! So please feel free to contact her at [email protected].
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